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Sunday, October 16, 2016

A New Leaf

One of my latest works began as a small piece of fabric that I had done some experimental printing on. I so liked the results of the leaf print on top of several textures that I hung it on my design wall and there it stayed for months as I focused on other larger works. Finally I decided to applique it down on a neutral background and add other colors. I had a design worked out and had chosen just the right tones to create a meaningful composition. I am being vague about what that composition would look like because the of-course-I-will-remember-this-because-it-is-so-obvious became I-haven't-a-clue-what-I-had-in-mind, after six months of working on still other projects. Even the small pile of carefully chosen fabric had disappeared as I borrowed one piece after another for those other projects and they never found their way back.

So, having hit a snag on one of those big projects one day I decided to solve the problem--again--of what to do with that fascinating but neglected little leaf. And here is what I came up with:

It's small--12 x 14 1/2"-- and it's done! Is this a better design than my original? I have no idea. It's name is Harmony, a little signature of coherence in this incoherent time.

And someday I will learn that notes and sketches are worth the effort. . . but then again maybe they are not.